Sadly the weather wasn't singing from our songbook, and we had rain pretty much every day. But the Coconut was its luxurious comfortable self, even though it was absolutely overrunning with children in school holidays. It has 2 huge resort pools, both heated, a massive splash park, playground, movie screen, free pancakes on Thursdays - the list goes on, and it is Ben's favourite park ever.
Once James joined us we revisited a number of our favourite spots from our visit last year, as we were keen to share them with him.
First stop was the Botanic Gardens, and its wonderful enclosed dome garden, filled with bromeliads, pitcher plants, butterflies and other treasures, including this watermelon pepperomia. Those leaves are absolutely flat - talk about natural tromp l'oeil!
The plants outside were spectacular as well.
The following equally soggy day we journeyed for a couple of hours to the incomparable Paronella Park. A now ruined castle built in the 1920s as a pleasure park, complete with its own hydroelectric plant which enabled it to have icecream and movies - very advanced given the rest of the area didn't get electricity until the 1960s! It is such a beautiful place, and it rains so often there that they supply umbrellas! It has wonderful gardens and is so worth a visit. Entry is current for 2 years and includes a tour, food for the fish/turtles/eels, a night in the caravan park and a night tour. We haven't done the night tour so we may yet go back!
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| This tower houses the recommissioned hydroelectric plant! Note the modern swing bridge over the falls. |
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| The view back to Paronella Park from the swing bridge. |
Of course, no visit to Cairns would be complete without a meal at one of its esplanade restaurants! We choose the Raw Prawn this time and I had a wondrous asian style seafood in mild coconut curry. Absolutely delicious!
I think this post is long enough - stay tuned for Cairns part 2!
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